Bad sectors on disk

I have 32kb in bad sectors. I ran the scan disc "search for and repair disc errors" but it did not help. Now, when I run the scan all files and folders it still says 32kb in bad sectors.

should I reinstall windows, will that fix it? also I have my disc fomatted to fat32 filing system, but I was reading that if you change over to NTFS that it repairs any bad sectors. I know when I reinstalled windows once before it ask me if I wanted to switch to NTFS and I said no.

I just don't know what to do, if you have bad sectors that are not repaired won't it cause your computer to stop working if you don't fix them?

thanks

 

okay thanks Steve, I will not worry about it then

but now I can't use part of my system mechanic program, the one that lets me move all my files to the end of the disc, so they don't get fragmented as much.

it gets to the part where the bad sectors are and it says to run the scan disc program.

so, you are saying if I reinstall windows that won't fix the bad sectors either??

 

shortgal10

Wait to see what Steve R Jones may have to say but here are my thoughts.

I suggest that you leave well enough alone.

STOP trying. Continued use may well do more damage.

System mechanic nor any other program can/will write to bad sectors.

YES. ! That is what is being said.

And neither will a FORMAT ( I don't think anyway )

I think that all that can be done has been. It may well be more apt to cause problems if you continue to mess with them.

BillyBob

 

Steve R Jones

I have someone with the same problem. And keeps trying to trying to mess with them.

That is the main reason I jumped in here.

I myself have never had the problem ( been lucky I guess )

BillyBob

 

Hi shortgal,

One action to take would be to go to the HD's MFG site and see if they have an analysis tool for the HD.

Depending on how old the HD is, it may be time to start thinking about replacing it before total failure.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi,

I think this would be an EXCELLENT time to get your system backed up. If you do not have a back-up system, work one out now, be it the Windows Backup, a third party backup program or just burning your important files and exporting settings, emails etc., to disk. Do a seach of the BBS forums for "backup" if you need some tips.

In (Win XP pro) "scandisk" I see there are two options:

Check disk options

• Automatically fix file system errors
• Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors

I think you are running the "Scan for..." option and this cannot "recover" the data from the sector. I suggest running the other option, Automatically fix file system errors. Just see if Steve R Jones and BillyBob think otherwise. I think this should "repair" the sector. When the sector is repaired, one file will be corrupted. If that file does happen to be part of System Mechanic, you should just need to reinstall the program to the same place (folder) or otherwise uninstall and reinstall.

If the harddrive is still under warranty (probably 1 year), it should be replaced free of charge. Make sure you organise everything with the company covering the warranty first, don't get left without a harddrive for weeks/months. Some people worry about the security aspect of sending their harddrive away. If you may have ANY sensitive data or say you do your banking by internet, you should consider this.

Matt

 

Here's what chkdsk's help says:

PHP:

Checks a disk and displays a status report.


CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]


  volume          Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
                  mount point, or volume name.
  filename        FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation
.
  /F              Fixes errors on the disk.
  /V              On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
                  on the disk.
                  On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
  /R              Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
                  (implies /F).
  /L:size         NTFS only:  Changes the log file size to the specified number
                  of kilobytes.  If size is not specified, displays current
                  size.
  /X              Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
                  All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
                  (implies /F).
  /I              NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
  /C              NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
                  structure.

The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.

Note that it says the /R switch implies /F. I've always took this to mean running it with the /R switch does the bad sectors thing and fixes file system errors. Anybody can feel free to jump in and set me straight on this if I'm wrong.

 

I ran both of the scan disc, the find and fix and the one that starts after you reboot.

I hope I don't have to buy a new hd, this one is only 2 years old. It is a 120Gig Ultra ATA. I just bought a new video card and installed another 512mb of ram.

I payed 1200 for the tower only and I will shoot everybody at tiger direct if this thing goes out on me.

what usually causes disc problems, is it a program that you download that is bad that messes it up or I read somewhere it said it could be due to rough handling.

I paid this computer guy 70 to install the ram and I told him I thought something was loose in it and he picked up the tower and shook it and I was freakin out.

if it programs that you download then I have been downloading some programs for my sims that are not EA approved.

maybe shoddy programming but I have uninstalled all of them.

they are from here

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/index.php
http://sims.ambertation.de/download.shtml?PHPSESSID=6bcf5da5924c5dc4dd699a8615fd2376

http://www.datgen.info/

the first one is to see the objects and sort them in the sims2
the second one is for the sims but I couldn't understand it, so I only ran it once
and the third one a skin coverting tool. DatGEN

this computer is driving me to the poor house.

thanks everybody for your responses.

I went to the ultra ATA site but they wanted a model # and I don't have it, it was not in the papers that came with it.

 

Hi shortgal,

I went to the ultra ATA site but they wanted a model # and I don't have it, it was not in the papers that came with it.

Belarc will give you system info including drive model and specs http://www.belarc.com/Download.html

Regards - Charles

 

here is what it said when I ran the short diagnostic test, so I guess everything is okay.


Run: 3/25/2005 11:00:06 AM

Primary IDE Channel : WDC WD1200BB-00CJA1
Model: WDC WD1200BB-00CJA1
Serial Number: WD-WMAA91083782
Capacity: 120.03 GB
Status: No S.M.A.R.T. thresholds exceeded


or should I run the long 20 minute diagnostic test?

and thanks Charles for the link to the Belarc site, what a niffty tool.

 

Hi shortgal,

You're welcome.

or should I run the long 20 minute diagnostic test?
You may as well, it'll confirm as far as possible that the drive is ok.

Then you can concentrate on working on those bad sectors using chkdisk's options.

Regards Charles

 

You could not get bad sectors from programs installed. It is a breakdown of the disk surface. Rough handling, yes. I have one that developed bad sectors after a power blackout. In the three or so years since, a few more bad sectors have developed, I just repair them and it keeps going. (BTW, "repair" just marks them as bad, they do not actually get fixed). I have the drive fully backed up, so if the bad sectors start spreading, I can easily get a new drive and carry on.
If the cause is that the surface of the drive is breaking down it will continue to develop bad sectors. This can happen rapidly, so use your scandisk/chkdisk to monitor it regularly. You should be able to see a detailed diagram of the scan. If the bad sectors are just contained to one spot, you could keep repairing the odd bad sector. If you see bad sectors occurring all over the disk, get a replacement drive quickly.

Matt

 

a little shacking most likely wont harm it that much as long as things are ******* in properly. just dont take a hammer to it.

what you can do is back your system up then reformat the drive which will write bad areas to the bad block table and prevent anything from writing to that area then reinstall everything back to factory defaults.

the kb you reported as being bad aint that much at all as long as what mattman said it doesn keep spreading. the drives i see with the most problems in what i do are ibm, quantum and seagate. i only install western digital and have had only 1 go bad out of a couple hundred ive installed. not saying w.d. cannot have problems just that ive seen less with them. in the old days it was a general rule that bad sectors if under 10% of drive you were still okay but that also had a lot to do with the high price of drives back then. now being they are cheap your better off just replacing the drive.

 

as far as I can tell from the diagnostic tools my disc is healthy and I only have the one 32kb bad sector


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/shortgal/healthy.jpg

I have a factory backup on my d drive but I don't understand what you are saying about reformating. I have never done that. does that erase all your files? Okay if I reformat the C drive and backup my files that I want to keep on cd's, then I can reinstall the factory backup from off my d drive. But I use the "tech in the box" to restore and it would be gone. The backup in my d drive is called PQIMAGE, I don't think you can open it without the "tech-in-the-box" program

 

Back up your data NOW and replace the bad HD. This disk is almost certainly NOT healthy. Hard drives are really cheap nowadays if you look for weekend sales.

It's my understanding that most, if not all, HD's have some bad sectors as a result of the manufacturing process, but before a drive is released for sale by the manufacturer the bad sectors are identified and marked so they will not be used. (These bad sectors are not "visible" to the standard disk-checking programs, so you wouldn't know they were there.) So, if that is, indeed, the case, one can assume that any bad sectors that show up after release of the drive are an indication of an ongoing problem with the drive. And it can fail at any time...can fail at any time...can fail at any time....!!!

 

on most system you buy retail you get what are called recovery cds. these cds put your system back to factory defaults including any and all applications that were brought with the system it also includes the windows xp operating system and the fact that you own the xp system.

larry r is correct that all drives have some defects (nothing is perfect). what the reinstallation of the recovery cd will do is reformat the hard drive and find any more defects that the drive may have and write them to the bad block table. if these defects are consistantly found then your drive has more problems as stated above and the best thing to do is replace the drive with a new one. so far i find the best prices for h.d.'s is at newegg.com both ide and sata.

if all you have is the xp operating system cd then when you install the xp cd the system will format the drive in either fat32 or ntfs. ntfs being the larger drives. this should find all bad areas on the drive and prevent further access to those areas. then after the xp is installed its just a matter of installing the drives for the different devices you have i.e. graphics card, modem, nic card, sound which should be part of the system cd you will get for the system board as well as the drivers for integrated devices on the board. after the xp install make sure you install the system board cd. to get the integrated devices to work

you mentioned before i believe that you brought this system from tigerdirect. i myself have built a couple barebones from them and so far they have been okay. basically i just brought the case and the board and added other devices per what i wanted.

my current system is from tiger and is a Wintergreen PM800-M2 Socket 478 with an intel 3.4ghz processor version e, 512mb micron pc3200 memory module, 16x dual dvd burner, 200g h.d., 460w enermax psu and a couple internal chassis fans. so far machine is working just fine.

confusing i am sure but i hope this helps a bit.

 

If shortgal makes a drive backup with DriveImage or TrueImage, can't she then reformat the disk, restore from the backup and be back where she was as far as the system is concerned, but without the bad sectors --- IF the format is able to fix the bad sectors at all.

 

how do I know which hard drive to buy, do they all fit all computers or do you have to have a certain kind to go with your specific motherboard.

I have M7VIP KT333 DDR motherboard Base
AMD Athlon XP Processor 2400+QuantiSpeed Architecture
16x DVD Rom Drive
48x12x48 CDRW Drive
1 GB DDR333 PC2700 DIMM Ram [two 512 's]
10/100 PCI Ethernet Adapter
Firewire 3-Port PCI Card
GeForce FX 5200 128 MB graphic card
Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Card

 

Format will not "fix" the bad sectors. It will mark them as unusable so that the sectors are not written to in the future. Some drive utilities will attempt to recover files from the bad sectors, but there is no guarantee that what is recovered is un-corrupted.

As to imaging the existing drive and then restoring it to the new drive that certainly would work--in theory. But, if there are files in the bad sectors that were corrupted, you would be making an image of these corrupted files and restoring the corrupted files to the new drive. That could cause problems in the future, especially if the corrupted files were system files. In her case, it would be best to do the drive image, format the new HD, install the OS and all the apps, and then restore just the data files from the drive image to the new HD.

In fact, what I do is create a folder on the new HD and restore the entire drive image of the old drive to that folder so that I can restore individual data files or folders at my leisure. After awhile, when I'm certain that I have restored all the key data files to the new HD, I delete the folder.